On 18 November, 15 Nicaraguan human rights organisations presented a report which accused President Daniel Ortega of crimes against humanity and called for the installation of international independent fact-finding mission in Nicaragua.
Analysis:
Ortega has faced similar accusations in the past related to his government’s crackdown on its opponents following unrest which erupted in April 2018. This is the first time that a report, which was endorsed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organisation of American States (OAS), has included the period up to and including the recent November general election which was widely slammed as undemocratic. It is likely to subject the Ortega government, which is already facing the prospect of international isolation, to further condemnation.
- Entitled “Dictatorship and repression in Nicaragua: the fight against impunity”, the report was presented by Centro Nicaragüense de Derechos Humanos (Cenidh) and Colectivo de Derechos Humanos Nicaragua Nunca Más, among other groups.
- It identifies six stages of repression since April 2018, beginning with generalised repression of citizens’ protest and including the imposition of a state of terror via “Operation Clean-up” (where parastatal Orteguista groups in coordination with the state security forces carried out extrajudicial executions to dismantle roadblocks); arbitrary arrests and the detention of political prisoners; express kidnappings, torture and the use of clandestine prisons; and the imprisonment and criminalisation of electoral opponents.
- The report tallies at least 355 dead and some 2,000 injured by state agents or civilians acting in acquiescence with these forces. It reports at least 1,614 victims of arbitrary detention for having participated in acts of protest or opposition, with over 100,000 people forced to flee the country and over 90 journalists forced into exile.
- In February 2021 the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and CENIDH released a 72-page report “Accountability now! Extrajudicial executions and repression in Nicaragua” which monitored the country over the 2018-2020 period and drew similar conclusions.
Looking Ahead: The government, which in 2018 expelled the OAS Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) and the IACHR’s Special Monitoring Mechanism for Nicaragua (Meseni), which was sent to monitor the human rights situation there, is unlikely to agree to the request for the international fact-finding mission. However, the report will pile further pressure on the government over the human rights situation in Nicaragua.